JPH0813055B2 - E-mail device - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail device, and more particularly to an electronic mail device capable of processing and storing or transmitting data according to the type of terminal device of a mail recipient. Is.

2. Description of the Related Art In communication using a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as personal computer communication), an e-mail service is provided for the convenience of the user. There is the one in the rear of Kaisho 63-46843 or as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 5, reference numeral 1 is a system control unit that has a built-in CPU and controls the operation of the entire apparatus, 2 is a line connected to the terminal device on the other side, and 3 is a line for receiving and receiving data with the line 2. A communication control unit that controls the transmission operation,
Reference numeral 4 is an ID search processing unit for searching whether or not the member ID input from the terminal device is registered, 5 is a character mail accumulation control unit used for accumulating received character mails, and 6 is A character mail memory for storing a character mail, and a character mail read control unit 7 for controlling a character mail read operation.

In the electronic mail device having such a configuration, when data (character mail data) is received through the communication line 2 and the communication control unit 3, the received data is controlled by the character mail storage control unit 5 and stored in the character mail memory. 6 and stored there. The mail recipient searches the mailbox to check for incoming email by sending an ID number to the email device. Then, if the mail has arrived, the system control unit 1 accesses the ID search processing unit 4 to perform a search when a reception request is issued to the electronic mail device. If the electronic mail has arrived, the character mail read control unit 7 Under the control operation of, the data is read from the character mail memory 7 and sent to the communication line 2.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in such a conventional electronic mail device, it is premised that both the device of the mail sending side and the device of the receiving side are personal computers, and the electronic mail is used as a recipient. There was a problem that you could not receive email unless you made a request to the device.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is, regardless of the type of terminal device of a recipient of an email,
An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail device that enables a recipient to send mail to a large number of recipients.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention has a terminal registration means for registering the type of terminal device of a mail recipient and a terminal for determining the type of terminal device from an ID number designated as a mail recipient. Retrieval means, first memory means for storing the received data in a non-converted state when the mail recipient's terminal device is a device other than a facsimile, and received data when the mail recipient's terminal device is a facsimile The data stored in the first memory means and the data conversion means for converting the data into facsimile data, the second memory means for storing the facsimile data, and the transmission request are sent from the terminal device. When it is received, it is transmitted to the terminal device, and the facsimile data stored in the second memory means is transmitted immediately or at a predetermined time. Then those having a structure that the control means for performing control to transmit to the terminal device.

Operation According to the above configuration, the e-mail service of personal computer communication can be used in the form of a personal computer and a facsimile. That is, the sender of the electronic mail sends the electronic mail regardless of whether the recipient's terminal is a personal computer or a facsimile. Then, in the electronic mail device, the terminal searching means determines the type of the terminal device from the ID number designated as the mail recipient. Based on this search result, when the terminal device of the mail recipient is a facsimile, the control unit operates the facsimile data conversion means to convert the received data into facsimile data, stores the data in the memory means, and then through the communication control means. Send to the fax of the mail recipient. When the terminal device of the mail recipient is a device other than the facsimile, the data is stored in the first memory means without being converted. At this time, when the terminal device of the mail recipient is a facsimile, it is transmitted immediately, and when the predetermined time is reached, it is transmitted. To do.

Embodiment FIG. 1 to FIG. 4 are views showing an embodiment of an electronic mail apparatus according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 is a system control unit that has a built-in CPU and controls the operation of the entire apparatus, 12 is a communication line connected to the terminal device on the other side, and 13 is data reception with the line 12. And a communication control unit for controlling the transmission operation, 14
Is a terminal registration memory for registering the type of terminal device corresponding to the destination ID sent from the terminal device, and 15 corresponds to whether or not the member ID input from the terminal device is registered and the registered ID An ID retrieval processing unit for retrieving the type of terminal device to be operated, 16 is a character mail storage control unit used to store the received character mail, and 17 is a character mail memory as a first memory means for storing the character mail. , 18 are character mail read control units for controlling the character mail read operation. Further, reference numeral 19 is a facsimile data conversion processing unit for converting character data into facsimile data, 20 is a facsimile mail storage control unit for controlling to temporarily store the mail converted into the facsimile data, and 21 is storing the facsimile mail. A facsimile memory serving as a second memory means, and a facsimile mail read control unit 22 for controlling reading of a facsimile mail.

The operation of the electronic mail device having such a configuration will be described below.

2 and 3 are flowcharts showing the mail receiving operation in this embodiment. When the e-mail device according to this embodiment is connected to a terminal device such as a personal computer of the caller through the communication line 12, the system control unit 11 enters a log-on procedure and inputs a member ID to the caller's terminal. To send a message. Then, when the member ID is received by the input from the terminal device in step ST301, the ID search processing unit 15 searches whether or not the received ID is registered and notifies the system control unit 11 of the result. In step ST302, the system control unit 11 prompts the terminal device to input the ID of the destination of the mail if the search result is registered, and receives the destination ID (step ST303). I
The D search processing unit 15 searches whether the destination ID has been registered, and notifies the system control unit 11 of the result. System control unit 11
If the result is not already registered in step ST304, transmits a message to that effect to the terminal device (step ST320), and returns to the acceptance of the destination ID (step ST3).
03).

In step ST304, if the result is registered, the process proceeds to the search operation of registered terminals (step ST305).
The registration terminal is searched by searching the type of the terminal used by the destination registered in the terminal registration memory 14 in correspondence with the member ID based on the destination ID, and the ID search processing unit 15 notifies the system control unit 11 of the type. . The system control unit 11 checks whether or not the terminal device is a facsimile (ST306). If the terminal device is a facsimile, the facsimile mail storage control unit 20 is instructed to store the facsimile mail by attaching a destination ID (step S306). ST307). If the terminal device is a device other than the facsimile in step ST306, the character mail storage control unit 16 is instructed to store the mail with a destination ID (step ST308). Next, the system control unit 11 checks whether or not the acceptance of the destination ID has been completed (step ST309), and repeats the processing operations of ST303 to step ST309 until the completion of acceptance of the destination ID is detected. In the meantime, even if a facsimile and a personal computer are mixed as the destination, the sender need not be aware of it.

After receiving the destination ID, this e-mail device
The operation of receiving e-mail data (step ST310) starts. The data being received is temporarily stored in the buffer memory built in the system control unit 11. If the destination terminal device includes a facsimile after the reception is completed (step ST312), the system control unit 11 sends the data stored in the buffer memory to the facsimile data conversion processing unit 19,
Convert to facsimile data (step ST313). The converted facsimile data is sent to the facsimile mail storage control unit 20 and is controlled so as to be stored in the mailbox for each ID in the facsimile mail memory 21 corresponding to the destination ID for which the communication was previously instructed (step ST314).
If it is determined in step ST312 that there is no facsimile transmission, or in step ST315 that there is character mail, the system control unit 11
Sends the data in the buffer memory to the character mail storage control unit 16 and controls to store the data in the mailbox for each ID in the character mail memory 17 corresponding to the destination ID (step ST319).

The error processing in this receiving operation will be examined. In the ID registration check operation of step ST302, if the result is not registered, the system control unit 11 checks in step ST311 whether the number of errors has reached a predetermined number N, and if it has not reached N. For example, the operation returns to the operation of caller ID reception (step ST301). On the other hand, if it is determined in step ST311 that the number of errors has reached N, the process proceeds to step ST318, error processing is performed, and then the reception operation is ended.

Next, the mail sending operation will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of this transmission operation.

First of all, regarding character mail, member ID
Reception (step ST401), ID search processing (step ST40)
2) and error processing (step ST409 and step ST41)
0) is the same as the operation in the above-mentioned mail reception.
If the member ID is registered, the process proceeds to the mail search process (step ST403). System control unit 1
1 sends the member ID to the character mail read control unit 22, and the character mail read control unit 18 searches the mail box of the sent member ID to check whether there is a mail (step ST404). If there is, the mail summary such as the member ID of the sender, the sending date and time, the title, etc. is read and sent to the system control unit 11 (step ST405).
Next, in step ST406, it is checked whether or not there is a mail transmission request, and if there is no transmission request, the transmission operation ends. On the other hand, if there is a request for mail transmission here, the system control unit 11 reads out the mail corresponding to the identification number of the requested mail and reads the system control unit 11
The data is transferred to the buffer memory installed inside (step ST407). At the same time, the system control unit 11 transmits the data to the terminal device while receiving these data in the buffer memory (step ST408).

Facsimile mail is activated by the time element by specifying immediate transmission, timer transmission, etc., and the mail in the target mailbox is read by the facsimile mail read control unit.
Send all using 22.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION As described above, according to the present invention, when the terminal device to be transmitted is a facsimile, it is converted into facsimile data and transmitted immediately, or when the predetermined time is reached, the terminal device is not a facsimile. Since the transmission control is performed according to the type of the terminal device, such as storing it in the memory without changing it and putting it in a transmission request waiting state, there are advantages when the terminal device is a facsimile,
In other words, it is possible to obtain instant transmission and to realize an easy-to-use electronic mail device. Further, when the terminal device is a facsimile, the e-mail device reads out from the memory without waiting for an instruction from the terminal device, so that the operator of the terminal device does not bother.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an electronic mail apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure of a receiving operation in the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a processing shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the latter half of the procedure, FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing an example of the transmission operation in the above embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional electronic mail apparatus. 11 …… System control unit, 12 …… Communication line, 14 …… Terminal registration memory, 15 …… ID search processing unit, 16 …… Character mail storage control unit, 17 …… Character mail memory, 18 ……
Character mail read control unit, 19 ... Facsimile data conversion processing unit, 20 ... Facsimile mail storage control unit,
21 …… Facsimile mail memory, 22 …… Facsimile mail reading control unit.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical indication H04N 1/00 104 Z

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A terminal registration means for registering the type of terminal device of a mail recipient, a terminal searching means for determining the type of terminal device from an ID number designated as a mail recipient, and a terminal device for a mail recipient being a facsimile. A first memory means for storing the received data in a non-converted state in the case of a device other than the above, a data converting means for converting the received data into the facsimile data when the terminal device of the mail recipient is a facsimile, The second memory means for storing facsimile data and the data stored in the first memory means are put in a transmission request waiting state, and when a transmission request is sent from the terminal device, the data is transmitted to the terminal device, Facsimile data stored in the second memory means is transmitted immediately or is controlled to be transmitted to the terminal device when a predetermined time is reached. E-mail device; and a stage.